


Lunatic

by angerofangels



Category: Smallville
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-15 20:17:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21259052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angerofangels/pseuds/angerofangels
Summary: Clark accidentally comes in contact with irradiated Kryptonian moon rock and deals with the consequences and runs into an old foe. Basically a werewolf/halloween episode like Thirst was for vampires. Takes place in early season 8.





	Lunatic

Admittedly super-multitasking was not one of Clark's abilities. Looking over Lois' article on the new orphanage downtown was ordinarily a somewhat simple task ( despite her atrocious spelling) but the woman herself wouldn't stop talking to him. 

"Are you even listening to me Smallville?" 

"Huh?" 

Clark looked up from the computer screen to see Lois' face, her red lipsticked mouth pulled into a scowl. 

Clark cleared his throat, embarrassed, and tried to recall anything. She rolled her eyes.

"You know Clark, Oliver invited you to this party too the least you can do is cancel on him if you're not interested." She growled.

"What? No I'm interested I just can't look over your paper while you keep talking. Can it wait a minute?"

"Fine. I'll put it real simple for ya." She sighed. "I don't know what to wear for the big Halloween party because I wanna be cute but given me and Ollie's past ...well I don't wanna be too cute because that would make things awkward and really ruin the night."

"Don't worry I don't think being too cute is a problem for you." Clark said snarkily. 

Lois smacked him in the shoulder and Clark pretended to wince. 

"Seriously Lois whatever you wear I'm sure you'll look nice."

Lois seemed caught off guard. She opened her mouth to say something back but got distracted by something behind Clark's back. She pushed past him and walked towards the crowd of people with their necks craned to watch the television. 

A fire blazed on screen as firefighters struggled to contain the flames. 

"What's happening?" Lois asked the onlookers.

"A fire at one of Luthorcorp's labs halfway to Granville. It's terrible, they think some people are trapped inside." Said one of them. 

"Clark are you seeing this?" Lois asked turning around but Clark had vanished.

\---

Clark sped in and out of the building grabbing one person in each hand. Once the main floor was clear he stood right in the center of it and closed his eyes and listened. Almost immediately he heard screams coming from below. He ran the length of the building looking for a stairwell or an elevator but couldn't find one. The screaming continued. Think come on where is it. Clark scanned the room in x-ray vision and saw an elevator door hidden behind a bookcase. He tore aside the bookcase and realized it was on some sort of automated system to reveal and hide the elevator doors. Secret floors. Classic Luthorcorp. He pried open the sizzling doors, climbed down the elevator shaft and through the lower set of doors.

It seemed to be a lab of some sort. Beakers were exploded on the counters and beneath the smoke Clark could see a man in a lab coat hunched over and coughing. He grabbed the man and went for the elevator opening but a pile of rubble fell down it, blocking the path. There were several horrible cracking sounds and metal screeching. Clark realized with a sinking dread that the building was coming down. He pulled the man down onto the ground and attempted to cover him as best as possible. The ceiling crunched down on them hard and everything went dark. 

Clark opened his eyes and through the dust could see the man coiled beneath him, unconscious but alive. As thankful as he was in that moment to be nigh invincible he couldn't help but to instinctively feel slightly disgusted as well at his own strength. Just a few years ago bullets had at least left bruises but he all could feel after that entire building  
against his back was a firm thump like the kind Jonathan always tried to give him. 

He grabbed the man in one arm and pushed upward feeling the pressure of the wreckage fall away until they were out in the fresh air again. Clark placed the man gently by the ambulance and sped away to get changed and get back to Metropolis. Thankfully he hadn't worn his signature red jacket this time as it'd be gray from all the soot and dust at this point.  
\---

Chloe rounded the corner as fast as she could to see Clark putting together an explanation for Lois when she got back as to why he ran out again. 

"Hey I saw you in that fire on the news." She said after making sure no one else was in earshot.

"It's fine Chloe I-" he stopped and cleared his throat. " I got everyone out." he finished before another fit of coughing. 

"Are you ok?" She asked worriedly. 

"Yeah I'm fine. I just-" he kept coughing and sniffed hard "There was all this dust…"

"Well it was a Luthorcorp facility do you think it might have been Kryptonite?"

Clark shrugged. "Maybe I mean it wasn't green it was white so I assumed it was just ash."

"You know what they say about assumptions…"

"Chloe." Clark looked at her solemnly " When the building came down I was in a basement only accessible by a secret elevator. I think it was some sort of laboratory maybe they were experimenting on meteor rocks when something went wrong."

"Lucky for us we know the new owner of Luthorcorp who seems to be familiar with their more secretive exploits." Chloe said.

Clark attempted to walk towards the door but Chloe stopped him. 

"Hey wait just a minute there firefighter. Knowing you I'll bet you don't have a costume yet for Oliver's party wednesday night." 

Clark pursed his lips and looked down. 

"That's what I thought" Chloe said matter of factly " You just focus on finding something to wear and I'll talk to Tess Mercer."

"Come on Chloe you know I don't even like costumes." Clark protested.

"You'll figure something out. Get creative." she said. "And please if you have any more symptoms let me know. These meteor rock incidents somehow always end in disaster."

\---

Chloe walked straight into Tess' office and waited arms crossed for Tess to look up from her computer.

Tess sighed irritatedly "Chloe Sullivan. Can I help you?"

"I know you're a busy woman Tess what with trying to be the next Lex Luthor and all so I'm gonna keep this brief. What were you working on in the basement of that facility that caught fire today." Chloe snapped.

Tess' face revealed nothing as usual. "I'm afraid that I don't know what you're talking about. Desmond labs was a one floor building."

Chloe turned around and closed the door. "Look you and I both know Luthorcorp run projects they don't tell the public about."

Tess stood up. "Have you ever considered that they might not tell their new boss about them if they're so secret? Believe it or not Chloe there are things in this company I've yet to know about but I have a team looking into the incident as we speak."

"Would you honestly tell me if you found anything?" Chloe said.

Tess pretended to think on this for a second before replying "Well, no. But you can read about anything relevant to public interest in the newspaper which I run. Speaking of which. We're done here."

Tess got up and opened the door. Chloe glared at her but took her leave. She wasn't getting anything from Tess today but that didn't mean this was over. 

\--- 

Chloe picked Clark from the crowd leaving for the day.  
"Alright so surprise surprise :Tess was unhelpful."said Chloe. "But I headed to Metropolis Gen and got a name from Davis for the guy you pulled from the basement. His name is Sean McArthur."

"Is he gonna be alright?" Clark asked

Chloe softened "Yeah thanks to the Blur. They expect him to recover in the next few weeks or so. I did some digging on this guy and he was a real workaholic. He doesn't have many friends but according to his neighbors the guy will talk to himself all night. Always bringing files up and down the apartment steps..."

"So he definitely took his work home with him."

"Yep and that's where we'll start." She handed him a paper with the address. 

\---

Clark put her down outside the door to the apartment. Chloe, at this point, was very used to superspeed travel and merely patted her hair back into place.

"Alright so I figured I should just pick the lock this time seeing as how we're breaking into someone's home.I mean if we're gonna break in we can at least not break anything else"

She looked back and saw Clark hunched over and panting. 

"Clark? Are you ok?"

"Yeah" he said between breaths. "Actually. I don't know. I'm a little dizzy. Can we just get this over with?" 

Chloe hesitated but stood aside as Clark snapped the door off its hinges and set it neatly inside the doorframe.

The apartment was small for someone on a Luthorcorp salary. A pile of shoes and umbrellas and coats spilled over from a shelf on the wall making the hallway a squeeze. McArthur appeared to use his bedroom as the office and they stepped over piles of paper and manilla files to reach his computer desk. Chloe flicked on a dim yellow light and noticed the sweat glistening on Clark's face.

"Are you sure you're ok to do this?" she asked. "Really I can take it from here and you can head home. You look really sick."

"I'm not leaving you out here Chloe it's getting dark and this neighborhood isn't safe." Clark insisted.

Chloe sat down at the computer and set to work finding her way in. She checked the logs and the most recently updated files were in a folder titled "Project 33". Decoding encryptions and bypassing digital locked doors was like riding a bike these days.

"Ok let's see…" she mused scrolling past journal entries and diagrams. " They were definitely experimenting on some sort of meteor rock...but….it doesn't sound like any Kryptonite we've seen before. The structure isn't crystalline at all its sort of scattered and sandy. According to this the rocks were low on hydrated minerals compared to other meteor rock samples similar to the difference between rocks from Earth and lunar rock samples." 

Chloe turned to Clark " Hey do you know if Krypton had a moon?"

Clark was looking at her, his eyes wide blue pools. He was breathing heavily again and shaking slightly. 

"Chloe I think something's really wrong with me." He swallowed hard. "It hurts ...everything hurts...You have to go you have to get away from me." 

Chloe rushed over to him "No, I'm not just gonna leave you here!"

Clark picked her up and threw her towards the door before falling over. Chloe hit the wall on the lightswitch and slid down to the floor as the lights flickered out. 

"Clark!" she yelled.

In the low light she could see Clark's body writhing in pain. But something ….. something else was happening. His form became bigger and bigger and in the fragments of moonlight she saw claws and shiny black hair ...fur.

This is bad.

Chloe grabbed her phone and immediately texted Oliver '47th and Washington asap bring k arrows'. When she looked up the floor was empty save for some claw marks in the tile floor and some shreds of Clark's shirt. 

Suddenly she became very aware of herself. The cold sweat on her forehead, her heart pounding in her chest and the feeling in her spine that Clark, in whatever state he was in, was still here. She used her phone screen as a flashlight and caught a glimpse of something moving out of the corner of her eye. She spun around but didn't catch what it was. 

A shadow moved in front of the window, turning the room pitch black and Chloe heard a low growl behind her.

\---

Clark felt sunlight beaming through his eyelids and scrunched his eyes open. He had a pounding headache and was in a part of town he didn't recognize. Upon looking down he saw that his clothes were torn and tried putting together what happened last night.

Chloe.

Clark whisked to her and Jimmy's apartment and knocked on the door. No answer. He tried the Talon next. Not there either. He finally bumped into Oliver on his way into the Daily Planet who grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Hey Clark chill out man. We've been looking for you." he said.

"'We' as in ...Chloe..?" Clark's mind was racing too hard to think clearly. 

"Yes Chloe is ok, she's fine. Well mostly."

"Mostly?!"

" Listen to me" Oliver began slowly. "I got there just in time last night. You and me had a hell of a scrap before I got some kryptonite arrows in your back and you ran off. I don't think you had the chance to hurt anyone else."

"Besides you and Chloe."

"Chloe had a few bruises and hard to explain bite marks but she survived and so did I ok? You had no idea what that stuff was gonna do to you it wasn't your fault." Oliver chided.

Clarks throat felt dry. Somehow he'd been sucked into yet another nightmare situation. He wondered, as he often did, how much pain his friends would be spared if he just didn't exist.

"It isn't over I still don't feel normal." Clark said trying to hide his panic "We have to figure out some kind of way to get this stuff out of me or we may not get so lucky next time. And if that happens Oliver I need to know that you won't just shoot me in the back."

Oliver grabbed Clark by the shoulders. "I told Lois and everyone else at the Planet you were sick and needed to take some time off. You'll go back to normal, Clark, you always do. In the meantime we just need to try and keep you away from people, and stress and anything that can make it worse. And you need to get new clothes."

\---

Late mornings on the farm were unusual for Clark. Chores were best done in the morning to leave time for the rest of the day. To make things even more difficult the animals seemed to sense something was off about him. The cows kept their distance, the horses were so antsy almost kicked their stalls down, and worst of all was Shelby. The golden retriever growled at Clark for the first time when he tried to pet him. He was so taken aback he almost didn't hear Lois' car as it pulled into the driveway. 

Clark zipped up to his room and closed the door. Maybe giving her a key was a bad idea. In a few minutes he heard knocking.  
"Hey umm. It's me, Lois. I hope you don't mind I went ahead and let myself in."

He did mind actually.

" Lois I'm really sick. I don't think you should come in I wouldn't want you to catch this." Clark said nervously. "Especially before Oliver's party"

She seemed to think about this for a second before replying. "Oh ok." She sounded almost disappointed. " I brought you some soup. Don't worry I didn't make it it's the canned kind. I know it isn't Mrs Kent level of cuisine but ..."

"I really appreciate it." said Clark smiling to himself.

"I found a lead on the fire at the lab. It looks like it was set on purpose. There've been some break ins at other Luthorcorp buildings. I think they were looking for something at that lab and something went wrong." 

"Well you know the Luthors. No shortage of enemies."

Lois laughed "I'll say. Well I've got my work cut out for me. I'd better get back to it. Hope you feel better soon. I kinda miss having you to boss around."

Clark felt a stir of sadness. He was scared and could really use the company but now more than ever letting her close would be too much of a risk.

"I'll see you around." said Lois and he heard her steps get further and further away.

\---

Clark appeared in Olliver's loft and nearly made the billionaire jump. 

"Jesus, Clark you could have knocked? Or just called me." 

"Sorry." Clark said half heartedly. "I was thinking since the fortress is out of commission I'd find something in this." he set a worn brown notebook  
on the table.

"Am I supposed to recognize that?" Oliver asked.

"It's Virgil Swann's notebook." Clark said."I looked through it again and found something on Krypton's moons. The rocks from it have a sort of magnetic pull to synthetic Kryptonite, specifically the silver kind."

"Ok then how do we get some of that?" Oliver asked.

"Well it's a little more complicated than that." Clark stumbled for the best explanation. "First off the last time I was around silver K didn't exactly end well."

Oliver raised his eyebrows. "And by that you mean…?"

Clark looked at his shoes awkwardly. "Um. I kinda...almost killed Lana. And Lex."

"Ok so we'll be careful. Noted."

"I have no idea where it is now but seeing as how it's a meteor rock that spent more than an hour with Lex Luthor I'd guess some of it ended up as Luthorcorp property." 

"And that's where Chloe would come in," said Oliver. "I'll call her and see if she's checked out of Met Gen yet. Then I'll suit up and we can all-"

"If it's ok, I think we can just take the fieldwork on this ourselves Oliver." Clark interjected.

Oliver side eyed him for a second before agreeing. 

\---  
Clark set Oliver down on the roof of the address Chloe found. Something felt very odd about doing this in plain daylight but given their current predicament it was mandatory.

"Ok the skylight should be right in front of you."  
Chloe said over comms.

"I see it." said Oliver and he walked over and began feeling for a tool in his quiver.

" We don't have time for this." Clark said terseley.

He burned into the glass and steel with heat vision until a hole melted into it large enough for them to fit through. He grabbed Oliver and jumped through it and landed with a solid thunk. A couple of ID Badged personnel stared widely down at them but before anyone could yell Clark shoved them all and sent them flying into the walls.

Oliver walked over to one of them and pressed his finger to their neck.

"He's alive but certainly not unscathed. These aren't exactly armed goons could you be a tad more gentle?" Oliver remarked.

"Let's just get this over with." Clark said flatly.

He heard Chloe sigh over the microphone. "You're looking for a box in here labeled 5-17."

They scanned the wall of the warehouse and found it underneath about 3 levels of other boxes. Oliver shot a grappling arrow into it and started pulling.

"Clark! Little help here?"

Clark was staring at the door. "More company."

Within seconds what looked to be the only guards in the building came rushing in. Again in a whoosh they were dispatched and on the floor. Clark held one of them squirming beneath his hand and snarled at them. Something red caught Oliver's attention from his peripheral vision. 

"Hey! He's bleeding." Oliver said pulling Clark off him.

"We don't have time to play nice with Luthorcorp mooks now move." Clark snapped.

Oliver stood nose to nose with Clark for a long moment before standing to the side and letting Clark effortlessly slide the box out and jump back through the hole in the window without him.

"Hey!" Oliver yelled. 

"He's already here." Chloe said exasperatedly over comms. 

Oliver frustratedly felt for another grappling arrow. "Is it me or is he getting more aggressive? I'll admit I want Clark to toughen up sometimes but this is just annoying. Pretty soon they'll be no difference between Clark and the wolf."

\---  
By the time Oliver managed to swing his way back to his apartment they had already managed to rummage through the box. 

"That's it!?" Clark said holding up a plastic bag containing a small chip of meteor rock. 

"Well," said Chloe "There's plenty of notes in here about it maybe we can synthesize some more from regular kryptonite."

"And how long will that take?"

Oliver shrugged "Definitely a few hours at least."

"It's already 5 o' clock. We don't have that much more time before nightfall." Clark protested.

"I'll try and tell them to rush the order." Oliver said sarcastically. "In the meantime, you need to stay here and out of trouble before anybody else gets hurt."

Clark glared at him and growled.

"Hey chill out you two." Chloe interjected, squeezing herself between them. "Ollie don't you have a phone call to make?"

Oliver reluctantly put down his bow and stepped outside into the hallway.

Chloe turned to Clark. "He's only trying to help you. Both of us are. And you're really not making it easy."

Clark's expression softened and he took a step back. "I'm sorry. I know that it's just...it's messing with my head."

Suddenly Chloe's phone rang.

"Hello." She answered." Lois?....You're where? No you've gotta get out of there you shouldn't be there least of all by yourself. Yes I know Clark is sick but maybe you could have gone to Oliver or….Lois?"  
The call ended.

"What was that about?" Clark asked wide eyed.

"Some story she's working on. She said she followed these guys to this abandoned building downtown and she's gonna get evidence that they set some fire."

"The one at the Lexcorp lab in Granville. She was telling me about it this morning."

" Wait Clark before you zip off I think we should just let Oliver handle this." Chloe said before realizing she was talking to thin air. 

\---  
At this point Clark was pretty accustomed to listening for Lois's voice above the voices of the city. Usually she was telling someone off or ranting about something but there was almost something sweet about it. 

He found her indeed at some empty warehouse downtown. She was muttering to herself trying to remember how to get out of a zip tie while pulling at her plastic restraints. Looks like she found who she was looking for. Clark hid behind one of the crates and at the right moment heat visioned the ties slightly weakening them just enough to let her pull herself free. 

Lois' expression lit up at her newfound freedom and she snuck around to another part of the warehouse and found her own hiding place. A card table was set up with some playing cards and smoldering cigarettes splayed out on the top. Three men were arguing over something, a dispute that ended when one of them pulled out a gun and pointed it at another. Lois gently reached up onto the table and managed to uncover her phone before sprinting off to safety. 

"Hey!"The man with the gun turned around and started firing in Lois' direction. Clark sped in the way and reached for the bullets but just as soon as his hand touched them they grazed him and kept going. Clark felt a familiar wave of pain come over him. Kryptonite.

He winced and fell to the ground. He heard footsteps come up to him and stop. When Clark opened his eyes the man with the gun was crouched next to him and smiling.

"Remember me Kent?" he asked.

And Clark did remember. Eric Marsh aka the guy that threw him into a furnace six years ago.

"Eric-"

Eric kicked Clark into a crate of Kryptonite, shattering it. 

"That's right freak." he said cheerfully. "While I was locked up I had plenty of time to go over our little short lived rivalry. Plenty of time to realize…" he crouched over Clark and picking up a glowing green shard. "That for some reason this stuff makes you weak."

Clark coughed up a small amount of blood. " You broke into those facilities…to find meteor rock."

"Well despite one minor mishap involving some flammable chemicals my associates and I have rounded up just enough of it to make a new more concentrated batch of this-" he said brandishing an inhaler "and get back in business."

Eric picked Clark up and tossed him into the wall. 

"Now." he said " My brain is telling me that I should chase after that chick who tried to play reporter. But my gut instinct is telling me that you and the furnace are long overdue for a little reunion."  
he smiled cruelly "I'm more of a trust your gut guy."

One of the goons walked over to the furnace and started turning it on while the other placed a hunk of Kryptonite on Clark's chest.

"Don't get up." he said smugly. 

"Eric…." Clark groaned "Please you can't do this. I need to get back before…"

The man picked up the kryptonite and shoved it into Clark's mouth.

It was too late. The first beams of moonlight trickled in through the skylight and Clark convulsed harder than before. The Kryptonite between his teeth cracked at the points of newly sharpened canines and shattered entirely. Frantically Clark started clawing at his clothes until they started to tear off revealing thick dark fur growing underneath.

The man closest to him backed away slowly. "What's he doing now?" he asked.

"I don't know" said Eric watching the transformation wide eyed "this is new."

The beast, now significantly larger than the young man where it once stood drew deep unstable breaths and eyes the man closest hungrily. It lunged at him and crunched down onto a braced arm narrowly missing his throat. The man hollered and fell over under the weight of it on him.

Eric knew this changed the odds. How was he supposed to know this kid was some sort of swiss army knife of meteor powers? Eric grabbed some of the inhalant stock and turned tail towards the exit ignoring the screams behind him. He took another hit to give his legs something to take him far away from here. 

Suddenly he felt something knock into his back winding him and pushing him flat on his chest. Eric felt teeth sink into his leg and drag him backwards. Blindly he kicked out and felt his foot hit something.

It dropped him and recoiled holding its nose.  
Eric felt a rush of confidence and scrambled back up. 

"Come on!" he taunted into the shadows.

Sharp claws lodged themselves inside his stomach and shoved him into the wall. He instantly regretted making that 'gut' comment earlier. Apparently monsters have senses of irony. 

Eric could feel the serum leaking out of his body as his blood did, turning his shirt soggy. Finally out of cards he looked up at his foe and desperately wished for a miracle.

As if to answer the creature suddenly grimaced and fell over, a silver shard in its back. Chloe pushed the shard in further wincing as she did so. 

"Sorry Clark." She said sheepishly. 

Slowly he returned to normal size and shape until once again she saw Clark Kent lying in a pile of shredded clothes and black fur. He was breathing heavily and blinking back into awareness.She drew the shard out of his back and tossed it aside.

"Ouch." Clark yelped and turned around. "Chloe?" 

"Are you ok?" she asked eyeing the concerning amount of blood the dagger took with it.

"I will be." said Clark nonchalantly. "Where's Oliver?"

"Right here." Oliver said holding down Eric who had attempted escape in the chaos. "Gotta say Clark the tail was a nice look. You'd have fit right in at my party tonight."

"Tonight?" Clark sighed. "I told Lois I'd be there."

"Relax. We got you covered." said Chloe with a smirk.  
\---

Apparently 'covered' meant covered in straw from the barn. It poked out of Clark's torn clothes and seemed to make a trail behind him as he made his way to a table as far from the dancefloor as possible. Still, he thought, it was more comfortable than the last time he was made into a scarecrow. 

The party was huge (as normal for Oliver Queen) to the point where no one even noticed that Oliver himself had yet to make an appearance and might not. 

"There you are." Clark heard Lois' voice behind him. "Where have you been I've been looking for you all night?"

She was wearing a red skirt with a black vest and a white shirt underneath with loose flowy sleeves. Across her shoulders was a velvety crimson cape and hood. A small stuffed wolf with beady black eyes peeked out from inside a woven basket she carried.

Clark blinked incredulously for a second. "Little Red Riding hood?"

"Not an answer to my question but yes. And what are you supposed to be?"she said looking him up and down.

"A scarecrow." 

"How very Smallville of you, Smallville." Lois said shaking her head. "Now. You owe me a dance before everyone is too drunk to stand."

She grabbed his arm and started pushing through the crowds. Clark knew given his lack of dancing skills, among other things, he should dig in his heels and refuse. But for some reason, under the bright autumn moon with her, it seemed like this halloween would be a little different.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I don't have a lot of experience formatting and posting fanfic so if my formatting or anything sucks please lemme know. Tips are totally appreciated.


End file.
